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Photograph at present.
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Christadelphian Hall,
Cheltenham Road,
Stokes Croft, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church did NOT have a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1955, but we understand it was closed in 1998.

This building first came into being as the Academy Cinema, designed by W.H. Watkins in an "Edwardian Baroque" style, and opened in 1914.

It was closed in 1955, and purchased by the Christadelphians for £7,000, becoming the Christadelphian Hall referred to in the following notice in The London Gazette of 22nd February 1957 (p.1227):

A Building certified for worship named CHRISTADELPHIAN HALL, Cheltenham Road, in the registration district of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, was on 15th February, 1957, registered for solemnising marriages therein pursuant to section 42 of the Marriage Act, 1949, in place of Christadelphian Hall, Midland Road, now disused. Dated 20th February 1957.

It was used as a place of worship until 1998, with a corresponding notice posted in the Gazette of 18th May 2000 recording its formal closure.

Various sources online record that after it closed for worship, it became the "Magic Box", a bar and restaurant. Latest information is that it has since been refurbished, is believed to go by the name of the Jesters Comedy Club. [Sources: Academy Cinema described on Wikipedia, and Paul Townsend's Photographic Archive of Bristol's Lost Cinemas]

Denomination

Now or formerly Christadelphian.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church was located at OS grid reference ST5908874130. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Christadelphian Hall, Stokes Croft, Bristol shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bristol shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Stokes Croft, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• A link to an article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, on Academy Cinema (null) (verified 2018-11-22)
• What can I say? Paul Townsend's collection of photographs, old and new, of Bristol is spectacular, focussing on his Photographic Archive of Bristol's Lost Cinemas (null) (verified 2018-11-13)
• Notices of Civil Registration of Places of Worship for marriages are published in the London edition of The Gazette. Hint: search for registrations from 1998 by choosing 'Church' notices, and the option 'Registration for solemnising marriage'. (verified 2018-12-11)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.